- stats on downloads page shows that 32-bit windows non-SSE version of my app was downloaded 12 times, so there is some need for it.

All that means is that 12 people might have tried it, not that anyone uses it. Some download all the versions and try them, or just DL them all in case they might want to later. I've tried all the 64bit versions on various CPUs but only the sse2 and fma were useful and even the difference between those was small. BTW, THANKS MUCH for all the hard work!

So, with sse2, avx, fma, any modern computer will get the three applications and eventually decide which one is the best one...

Potential problem: some machines error the WUs with avx and fma while sse2 seems to work with everthing I've tried.
I've found that fma can be slightly faster than the sse2 version on some machines but the difference is small.

So, with sse2, avx, fma, any modern computer will get the three applications and eventually decide which one is the best one...

Potential problem: some machines error the WUs with avx and fma while sse2 seems to work with everthing I've tried.
I've found that fma can be slightly faster than the sse2 version on some machines but the difference is small.

So, with sse2, avx, fma, any modern computer will get the three applications and eventually decide which one is the best one...

Potential problem: some machines error the WUs with avx and fma while sse2 seems to work with everthing I've tried.
I've found that fma can be slightly faster than the sse2 version on some machines but the difference is small.

So, with sse2, avx, fma, any modern computer will get the three applications and eventually decide which one is the best one...

Potential problem: some machines error the WUs with avx and fma while sse2 seems to work with everthing I've tried.
I've found that fma can be slightly faster than the sse2 version on some machines but the difference is small.

I checked your computers and found few validations errors, but no error reported by app or BOINC client that something was wrong. Maybe these are caused by that mysterious error mentioned by valterc before? I also saw this few times but on SSE version. That was on machine running 24/7 and BOINC configured with long task switch time, so these WUs were crunched from start to end without interruptions. One of them was also crunched by someone with my app and that for that person it was validated successfully, so it is even more interesting.
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I checked your computers and found few validations errors, but no error reported by app or BOINC client that something was wrong. Maybe these are caused by that mysterious error mentioned by valterc before? I also saw this few times but on SSE version. That was on machine running 24/7 and BOINC configured with long task switch time, so these WUs were crunched from start to end without interruptions. One of them was also crunched by someone with my app and that for that person it was validated successfully, so it is even more interesting.

The only 3 validation errors I had were all at once on 1 machine when there was a power glitch. The problem I had with the non sse2 versions were on certain CPU types. They errored all WUs immediately, but it was a while ago when I was testing and the WUs are no longer in the database. The sse2 version runs fine on every machine I've tried so far (15-20 boxes for myself and friends).

I checked your computers and found few validations errors, but no error reported by app or BOINC client that something was wrong. Maybe these are caused by that mysterious error mentioned by valterc before? I also saw this few times but on SSE version. That was on machine running 24/7 and BOINC configured with long task switch time, so these WUs were crunched from start to end without interruptions. One of them was also crunched by someone with my app and that for that person it was validated successfully, so it is even more interesting.

The only 3 validation errors I had were all at once on 1 machine when there was a power glitch. The problem I had with the non sse2 versions were on certain CPU types. They errored all WUs immediately, but it was a while ago when I was testing and the WUs are no longer in the database. The sse2 version runs fine on every machine I've tried so far (15-20 boxes for myself and friends).

Yeah, power outage is a problem for many BOINC apps, usually they assume they will be able to always write checkpoint successfully, and do not take into account that this may be interrupted by power outage or another sudden app termination.

You mentioned errors with AVX app. Are they problems with starting/running app, or validation errors? If with starting/running, could you provide me link to example failed WU? I would like to check if there are some details which may be helpful.
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You mentioned errors with AVX app. Are they problems with starting/running app, or validation errors? If with starting/running, could you provide me link to example failed WU? I would like to check if there are some details which may be helpful.

Immediate failure. I tested on 12/25 and those WUs are out of the database. On most machines the avx app ran but wasn't any faster (often slower) than the sse2 app. In fact I found no machines on which the avx app was superior. The fma app was a little bit faster than the other 2 versions on my AMD X8 boxes.

Immediate failure. I tested on 12/25 and those WUs are out of the database. On most machines the avx app ran but wasn't any faster (often slower) than the sse2 app. In fact I found no machines on which the avx app was superior. The fma app was a little bit faster than the other 2 versions on my AMD X8 boxes.

Be aware you need a capable cpu to run those applications. Looking at your computers, ony AMD FX have both avx and fma, Athlon 5350 have only avx. however, they are not known to be excellent in these capabilities :)
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Immediate failure. I tested on 12/25 and those WUs are out of the database. On most machines the avx app ran but wasn't any faster (often slower) than the sse2 app. In fact I found no machines on which the avx app was superior. The fma app was a little bit faster than the other 2 versions on my AMD X8 boxes.

Be aware you need a capable cpu to run those applications. Looking at your computers, ony AMD FX have both avx and fma, Athlon 5350 have only avx. however, they are not known to be excellent in these capabilities :)

Thanks. Pretty much to the point I was making. Looks like you're in the same boat. What CPUs actually use avx effectively? Comparative times?

We will continue to support Mac OS (sse, avx and fma). We just need more time for building the applications (lack of hardware is the main problem).

valters, I tried to google for "linux mac cross compiler" and found few interesting discussions on StackOverflow on this topic. Looks that there is such crosscompiler ready to use (see https://stackoverflow.com/a/10341443). There is even VM with Apple's system, although I am not sure what their legal status is.
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Thanks. Pretty much to the point I was making. Looks like you're in the same boat. What CPUs actually use avx effectively? Comparative times?

Of mine only the FX have avx. I posted my test on this machine above and there was a little advantage over sse2 but I verified later that running the application on all cores the advantage gets negligible.
Anyway we no more need to care about this. Optimized applications are distributed by the project, just delete app_info.xml and restart boinc (better if you abort and report workunits first) and you will get the right app.

when I am resetting the project it is not downloading the app to run the WU's. It is just downloading WU's and the erroring out with computational error.

I have been able to get it to download the apps with a detach/reattach. Initially it was running avx @ ~1hr45min a wu but now it is running ver9 at 4 hours a wu. Is there a reason it back leveled to the old app?

when I am resetting the project it is not downloading the app to run the WU's. It is just downloading WU's and the erroring out with computational error.

Did you have the app_info? In this case the safest way I know to 'go back' is a) make sure the wu cache is empty, stop boinc, delete the app_info.xml file, start boinc. (A simple reset is not enough)

I have been able to get it to download the apps with a detach/reattach. Initially it was running avx @ ~1hr45min a wu but now it is running ver9 at 4 hours a wu. Is there a reason it back leveled to the old app?

That's probably my fault, I forgot to 'deprecate' the old 0.09 apps. It should be fixed now, sorry, you can abort the 0.09 workunits.

My Windows 10 i7-6700K @ 4.00GHz system is hyper-threaded to 8 cores. When Gene Network Application 0.10 windows_x86_64 was released it was initially only running the avx version (65 tasks). That was followed by a spell running the sse2 version (38 tasks) and its current work allocation has 29 tasks running the fme version. Performance figures so far are:

65 completed avx tasks:

Average run time 43:11 (min 41:09, max 49:50)

Average CPU time 42:10 (min 40:54, max 43:53)

38 completed sse2 tasks:

Average run time 45:04 (min 43:42, max 46:36)

Average CPU time 44:25 (min 43:01, max 46:13

9 completed fme tasks:

Average run time 41:31 (min 40:02, max 42:33)

Average CPU time 40:48 (min 39:45, max 41:43)

CPU time gives a more realistic indication of the performance (the avx task with run time 49:50 had CPU time 42:18), and at the moment the timings are pointing towards the fme version being the fastest on that computer (the sample size is too small to say that it's statistically significant, but the minimum and maximum CPU times suggest that's likely to be the case).
____________"The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer